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Monday, 3 January 2011

Tempering the Tea Party in 2011?

An interesting piece at LAT, "'Tea Party' Activists Keep Watch on Congress' New Class."

Photobucket

With a GOP majority now in the House, the role of the tea party in politics and policy will change. The Times' piece points out the polarizing tendency between purity and pragmatism, and considering the longstanding insight that Members of Congress are "single-minded seekers of reelection," I'm confident that purity will be taking a backseat to pragmatism and party unity.

Additional analysis, with links and photos, is here.

Trotskyites Strike Back Over Feminists' Julian Assange Allegations

You know this whole radical progressive schism over the Assange rape allegations has gotten out of control when one of the world's leading revolutionary parties is pushing back against the feminist left's charges against the WikiLeaks frontman. See the Socialist Equality Party's, "The Nation Joins the Campaign Against Julian Assange."

And I've written a full-blown analysis here: "Trotskyite Fourth International Attacks The Nation's 'Right-Wing Campaign' Against Julian Assange."

Trotsky


Bedtime Totty.......

Nice Jag..........


H/T Paul B

Pic Dump..........






Yummy......

Video: Lordi jinak - Origin of Irish Dancing...

Priceless.



H/T Shelly

Cartoon Round Up....




News........

The LCS is not expected to be survivable in a hostile combat environment…

The science of consensus

Thousands of dead birds picked up in Ark. town

The Manchurian Candidate

King William's College "Christmas Quiz" 2010

GOP agenda may mean more in 2012 than now

Boredom Enthusiasts Discover the Pleasures of Understimulation

The Last Roll of Kodachrome Film Ever Will Be Developed Today


Have scientists discovered how to create downpours in the desert?

We've shot down West's spy planes, claims Iran: Aircraft 'intercepted in Persian Gulf'

Competing Visions: France and Germany Split over Plans for European Economic Government

Man Robs Store With Tree Branch; Clerk Defends Himself With Hammer

Iraq Update by DJ Elliott..........


Iraqi Security Force Update January 2011

Video: Surfer girl

Surfer girl Long Ver. from Joe Hill on Vimeo.

Video: FAIL Compilation 2010 Best Fails of the Year

Monday Mopsies........




Real estate vs. the fourth estate........from Rico

CRE (commercial real estate) isn't talked about by the Mnistry of Truth a.k.a. the Fourth estate, but it is taking-down banks at an evr-increasing clip.
- Some are forecasting 800 bank failures in 2011, primarily due to CRE.

Less talked about (if THAT'S possible) is housing. Homes. The other 'real estate.'
- I think Case-Shiller are right and housing prices/values will revert to the mean. [Translation for Democrats (C): Drop. Fall in value.] This would mean a further decline of 23%....but, just like values overshot on the upside I suspect they will overshoot to the downside and over-correct, meaning more than a 23% drop.

Just don't hold your breath for any similar decline in property taxes, however.
- Not as Counties go broke and Municipal Bonds tank.

Video: My Christmas Eve



H/T Shelly

Woman Drowns in Australia Flooding

At New York Times, "Floods Kill Woman in Australia."

A full report from PA Pundits International: "Queensland Australia Flood Disaster Central – Rockhampton."

And from The Australian, "
Military sends supplies to Rockhampton." Also, an editorial at the paper, "Resilience in facing catastrophe":
Australia must plan and build for extremes of climate

FOR many city dwellers watching the Queensland floods on plasma screens, the prospect of camping on baking roofs surrounded by putrid floodwaters submerging homes, farms and towns is barely imaginable. So, too, is the stoicism with which outback and regional Australians are facing the crisis, especially after a decade or more of crippling drought.

The rest of Australia, and indeed the world, can only admire the hardiness and resilience of those who have been ravaged by the continent's climatic extremes repeatedly and who have become resigned to them. As one family whose home is on the banks of Rockhampton's Fitzroy River philosophically told The Australian's Graham Lloyd last week: "We've been through it before, we've been through a lot of floods. It's part of living here . . . when they come, they come." And so do the snakes, the debris and billions of dollars damage.

As usual, the response of local government, police and Queensland State Emergency Service staff to the crisis has been outstanding. Driving into floodwaters at night until the vehicle is almost submerged then boating to rescue terrified children clinging to the branches of trees in a crocodile-infested river is not for the faint-hearted. Authorities have done an excellent job notifying local government officials, police and residents in plenty of time about flooded rivers and the need to evacuate.
More at the link.

CROSS-POSTED from AMERICAN POWER.

Sunday, 2 January 2011

Le Monde Names Julian Assange Man of the Year

Jazz Shaw has the story at The Green Room.

Also, a useful roundup from CBS News, "
How WikiLeaks Enlightened Us in 2010."

And here's communist Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! year-end review, "
Julian Assange on WikiLeaks, War and Resisting Government Crackdown" (transcribed at the link):

PREVIOUSLY: "WikiLeaks — News Story of the Year." Plus, "Progressives and the Julian Assange Rape Allegations." (And WikiLeaks search results at the link.)

RELATED: "
White Knights and Rape Culture."

CROSS-POSTED from AMERICAN POWER.

Bedtime Totty.......

Taste That Rainbow.........


H/T Douglas

FAIL'S WORLD : Bike Jump Into Pool


H/T Paul B

_________________ down!..............from Rico

Divers know the symbols for "diver down" and law enforcement calls "officer down" in extremis, so what do you call a 33% drop in the venerable US Dollar from 2000 to 2010?
- [Hint for Joe Biden and other Obamunistas....it's NOT recovery.]

Video: Fail Compilation December 2010

Video: Skiers & Snowboarders are kissing the Planet




Watch entire film HERE

The Sunday Best.........

Nothing to Tell, But They Asked Me Anyway...

Why Obama Can't Get No Satisfaction in 2011

Next Year's Wars: The 16 brewing conflicts to watch for in 2011.

Bison ranchers struggle to meet consumer demand

Burger King adds Brussels sprouts to Whopper in UK

Spending showdowns will test new Congress leaders

Witchcraft declared legal profession in Romania

Why So Many Animals Evolved to Masturbate

An Egyptian Copt observes the scene, wrapped in a sheet on which a Christian cross has been painted in blood

How an obscure British skit has become Germany's most popular New Year's tradition.

The four inch gadget that helps British soldiers to pinpoint Taliban snipers

Prospect of fuel protests rises


Australia faces 'biblical' floods


Iranian dissidents face a tragic final act at Ashraf

North Korea calls for better ties with South

and finally......

The Ghost of the future by little Jimmy May

Do not wait for global warming: Winter warmth ideas for red-neck Yankees

Video: 150mph right hand bend taken flat out on a 600cc



H/T Marc

Cartoon Round Up....




The Best of Not Necessarily the News

Back From a Nap


Well. I took most of December off to reflect on why I'm so damn good looking.


Meanwhile, all the other Rebs have been busy bloggin'.


Have you visited the Reb lately? We'd like to show you our Humility!



Carry on.

Sunday Totty........




Dropping the ball....from Rico

This pretty much sums up our 111th Congress.
Yup! The one that made incandescent light bulbs illegal, growing your own food and/or sharing it illegal, and blah-blah-blah
....but somehow just could not find the time to pass a budget for 2010!
- Dropping the ball one last time (sniff!).

I'm sure NOT going to miss them!
- Dumbasses...............

Saturday, 1 January 2011

2010 Statistics re Airport Screening Results

2010 statistics on Airport screening from the Department of Homeland Security

 
Terrorist Plots Discovered              0
Transvestites                              133
Hernias                                   1,485
Hemorrhoid Cases                 3,172
Enlarged Prostates                8,249
Breast Implants                   59,350
Natural Blondes                           3

Can Sarah Palin Win the 2012 Republican Nomination?

The 2012 presidential election begins today, whether folks admit it or not. Will Sarah Palin be the GOP's presidential nominee? It's one of the biggest questions of the year. A full analysis here: "Can Palin Win the 2012 GOP Nomination? — A Reassessment."

More commentary and analysis at American Power.

IRANIAN SPY:IRAN PLANS TO NUKE EUROPEAN CAPITALS AND ISRAEL




Original post at: MyNewsLinx

Saturday Night is Bath Night.........

WERE THE FOUNDING FATHERS LIBERTARIANS?










STORMBRINGER presents David Frum's excellent three-part series on the political philosophies and sentiments of the Founding Fathers.












Let me toss in my 5 cents worth on the question of whether the Founders were “libertarians.”

This seems to me a question approximately as meaningful as asking whether the Founders would have preferred Macs or PCs: it exports back into the past an entirely alien mental category.

Libertarianism fuses two ideas, one political, one psychological. The political idea is that the central state should be confined within the narrowest possible limits. The psychological idea is that each person should enjoy the widest possible scope to live as he or she thinks best.

Libertarians see these two ideas as very consistent. But . . .

. . . back in the 18th century, each on its own would have been inaccessible, never mind both together.



Read the rest of this incredible piece in its entirety HERE

Bonus Babe........

Video: Trebuchet Fun



H/T Marc

Song: Obummer! by Christina Houston



H/T Warning Signs

Video: Voyeur FLIR In Iraqi Palm Grove



H/T Marc


H/T Paul B

Video: How to save someone from drowning

Cartoon Round Up....





News.........

From the pope, the patriarch, the arch bishop and the other whining hanky wringers who run the christian churches ....

Haha, MoveOn.org created a WheresChristie.com web site to track Chris Christie

A Passage to Israel

Big Gas Find Sparks a Frenzy in Israel .

Definitions of 'had sex' not consistent

Forecasters keep eye on looming 'Solar Max'

Aerovironment, Textron Systems, IAT to Deliver Lethal Mini-Drone Prototypes in Four Months

Tom Selleck's scary accurate tech predictions from '90s AT&T ads

Argentina's UN jibe over Falklands as ambassador says Britain winning war 60 years ago is no reason for seat on security council

Car bomb in Egypt kills at least 21 outside Christian church

Ivory Coast in 'civil war situation'


North Korea's heir-apparent launches luxury villa construction spree

New Year's Totty........




MMXI

Happy New Year!

Think 2010 was uncalled for?

Just wait til ebberdobby gets all dosed up on MMXI - It's gonna be off the hook ya'll!

A few predictions:

Tom Ricks' "Best Defense" scores a 2nd consec win as 'best blog on earth' 

Professor James S Robbins earns a Pulitzer for "This Time We Win" 

Former General McChrystal's memoirs will be nom d'guerr'd "Super Ninja"

AmPow will score the 2 millionth hit in 2011

Professer Steven Metz will finish up a book about Offshoring Power that makes a way more stronger case for Interventions Gone Wild than Perle and Frum ever could.

Jay at Armchair Generalist will author an impressive work about enabling Great Satan with neutronic weaponry - earning a top gig at States's International Security and Nonproliferation Bureau

Arab League will come out publicly with a plea for Great Satan to attack Iran’s new clear chicanery facilities, and do it in a way that implicitly gives the green light for Little Satan to do it if 44 is too timid. A delightful diversion, it will totally queer the mix for West Bank-settlements issue and Palestinian negotiations.

Fidel Castro will pass on to the great collectivist ash heap in the sky, Gov Christie will either get some skinny going on and or grow a stash as he and Ambassador Bolton detonate a ground swell of support for rotundency and moustaches.

Crisis in Pyramidland — What's worse, the 82-year-old Undying Pharoh For Life Hosni  jacking the presidential election for the umpteenth time, or pushing junior into office?

Stuxnet!

Captain Burke at WoI and Climb To Glory fame will become field grader Major Burke. His contribution to the new FM 3 -23 v2.0 will defy conventions with hot techniques for hooking up COIN and Drones Gone Wild. 

Spoiler Alert! Wargaming vids go viral at Milblog 2011 - featuring Wings Over Iraq and Rethinking Security reenacting Kursk (complete with the ancient Axis and Allies pieces on 'somebodies' sleek flat belly sexed up with lipstick demarcation of Prokharovka's terrain). Narrated by Render.

Pakistan will outpace Grafenwöhr as the world's largest impact area as Great Satan literally rains heckfire missiles - with zero civie casualities - that makes last September's Drone Month look like down time. 

The Pakistani Intervention of 2011 will be fully crunk with funintended consequences as Special Forces, Rangers, Seals, Marine Recon and finally, the Screaming Eagles, violently storm terrorist sanctuaries in a blitz of Writ of State sexercises. 

An especial hunter killer team led by Army Major Few will capture aQ's #2, the evil Dr Z (who will appear to have bladder detonated his manjammies at 1st contact).

 CNAS' Panzer/Surge Expert Col Dr John Nagl will be on the short list to move over to the Pentagon when Def Sec Gates splits.

Small Wars Foundation (it's hot!) breaks all the rules - debuting 'COIN Action Figures' - inexplicably, the Colonel Gentile (with SOSH diorama/playset) becomes the most collectible.

The Ex at Abu Muqawama will start distillation and distribution of an especial brand of potently smoooooth sluggin' "Surgin' Whiskey" 

Palestine becomes a nationstate and in a wild LOL celebratory celebration, the Strip accidentally on purpose launches several errant SCUD D's - that errantly vaporize the Dome of the Rock thingy in a Nakbah redux of histrionic proportions - sparking Imperial m"Hammedism to strike something something Palestine from any future lists of grievances.

Covert dogcatchers will storm the Playboy Mansion

Silvio Berlusconi will continue to be Europe’s most entertaining sugar daddy/prime minister. Belgium will continue to be Europe’s most unnecessary country. Great Satan will continue to be the most indispensable country.

Spencer Ackerman's hot new improved "Attackerman" will begin undressing the COIN versus Hyper Puss debate - essentially saying "Hey! Let's do both ya'll!"

Lauren - the "Soft Power" girl - will outstrip all competition again, retaining her tiara (now at an amazing 32K) as the most downloaded pic of all time at GsGf

Unassing Iraq will be disregarded in hot new SOFA agreements, ensuring the ME's 1st probable Arab democrazy continues to experiment with not killing anyone who politically disagrees with each other.

Pic - "Take a chance - and don't ever look back"and auld lang syne with the staff of GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLFRiEnD